Senior Systems Software Engineer, Compute Stack Acceleration

NVIDIA Corporation; Santa Clara (CA); On-site; USD 184,000 - 356,500; Full time

Job summary

NVIDIA Corporation in Santa Clara, CA is seeking a senior systems software engineer to lead cross‑stack toolchain adoption across large software components.

You will evaluate GCC and LLVM/Clang toolchains, integrate them into complex build systems and CI, and establish performance and code‑quality playbooks.

The role requires 8+ years of systems software experience, strong C/C++ and Linux expertise, and excellent collaboration across teams.

Qualifications

• BS, MS, or PhD in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or equivalent experience.
• 8+ years of relevant systems software engineering experience.
• Strong C and C++ development, debugging, and code‑review skills.
• Strong Linux systems knowledge and hands‑on experience with complex native software stacks.
• Practical experience with GCC or LLVM/Clang, linkers, compiler options, and build systems.
• Experience with large multi‑component codebases and CI environments.

Responsibilities

• Lead toolchain, build, code‑health, and performance‑workflow adoption projects across large software components.
• Evaluate and deploy GCC and LLVM/Clang toolchains, compiler options, linkers, sysroots, and cross‑compilation configurations.
• Integrate modern toolchains and workflows into complex build systems and CI environments.
• Establish useful Clang diagnostic builds and targeted sanitizer coverage in partnership with component owners.
• Evaluate techniques such as link‑time optimization, profile‑guided optimization, AutoFDO, and BOLT on representative software.
• Use profiling, PMU data, flamegraphs, and binary/source analysis to identify actionable performance and code‑quality findings.
• Build automation, wrappers, validation scripts, dashboards, and migration helpers where they improve adoption and repeatability.
• Measure changes in runtime, code size, build time, launch latency, throughput, quality, or engineering velocity.
• Drive complex blockers to the appropriate compiler, runtime, library, infrastructure, or component owner.
• Document validated approaches as reusable playbooks for other engineering teams.
• Communicate technical results and tradeoffs clearly to engineers and leadership.

Skills

C/C++ development

Linux systems

CI environments

Cross-team leadership

Performance profiling

Python scripting

Education

BS/MS/PhD in CS/CE/EE

Tools

GCC

LLVM/Clang

Job description

NVIDIA is growing a senior engineering team focused on making our compute software stack first‑class on NVIDIA CPU platforms. The team turns modern toolchains, build and code‑health practices, performance‑analysis workflows, and optimization techniques into repeatable improvements across real software components. We are looking for an experienced systems software engineer who can lead cross‑stack engineering efforts from an ambiguous adoption problem to a measurable outcome.

What You’ll Be Doing

• Lead toolchain, build, code‑health, and performance‑workflow adoption projects across large software components.
• Evaluate and deploy supported GCC and LLVM/Clang toolchains, compiler options, linkers, sysroots, and cross‑compilation configurations.
• Integrate modern toolchains and workflows into complex build systems and continuous‑integration environments.
• Establish useful Clang diagnostic builds and targeted sanitizer coverage in partnership with component owners.
• Evaluate techniques such as link‑time optimization, profile‑guided optimization, AutoFDO, and BOLT on representative software.
• Use profiling, PMU data, flamegraphs, and binary/source analysis to identify actionable performance and code‑quality findings.
• Build automation, wrappers, validation scripts, dashboards, and migration helpers where they improve adoption and repeatability.
• Measure changes in runtime, code size, build time, launch latency, throughput, quality, or engineering velocity.
• Drive complex blockers to the appropriate compiler, runtime, library, infrastructure, or component owner.
• Document validated approaches as reusable playbooks for other engineering teams.
• Communicate technical results and tradeoffs clearly to engineers and leadership.

What We Need to See

• BS, MS, or PhD in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent experience.
• 8+ years of relevant systems software engineering experience.
• Strong C and C++ development, debugging, and code‑review skills.
• Strong Linux systems knowledge and hands‑on experience with complex native software stacks.
• Practical experience with GCC or LLVM/Clang, linkers, compiler options, and build systems.
• Experience working in large, multi‑component codebases and CI environments.
• Experience with performance profiling, root‑cause analysis, and before‑and‑after validation.
• Ability to lead projects with substantial technical and organizational ambiguity.
• Excellent written and verbal communication and a record of effective cross‑team collaboration.

Ways to Stand Out From the Crowd

• Experience with Arm64 systems, CPU architecture, vectorization, or SVE.
• Experience with LTO, PGO, AutoFDO, BOLT, binary optimization, or code‑layout analysis.
• Hands‑on experience with Clang diagnostics, AddressSanitizer, or other code‑health workflows.
• Familiarity with PMU analysis, perf, flamegraphs, BRBE, SPE, ETM, or similar profiling technologies.
• Experience with cross‑compilation, sysroots, large monorepositories, Perforce‑scale development, or distributed build systems.
• Experience turning a successful migration or optimization into a maintained workflow used by multiple teams.
• Python or other scripting experience for engineering automation and data analysis.

Your base salary will be determined based on your location, experience, and the pay of employees in similar positions. The base salary range is 184,000 USD – 287,500 USD for Level 4, and 224,000 USD – 356,500 USD for Level 5. You will also be eligible for equity and benefits. Applications for this job will be accepted at least until July 23, 2026.

NVIDIA is committed to fostering an inclusive work environment and proud to be an equal opportunity employer. As we highly value diversity in our current and future employees, we do not discriminate (including in our hiring and promotion practices) on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, disability status or any other characteristic protected by law.